Ugly Duckling
by streco
Summary: So here I am. Charles Swan, the Chief of Police in Forks, Washington, with a daughter in a more successful relationship and a boyfriend who is so sickeningly attractive and sincere that it makes you want to throw up with envy. -Charlie tries to find love?


Honestly, I have no idea as to where this came from. I'm rereading New Moon (again!), and I'm at the part where Bella encounters Laurent in the meadow and the wolves run him away, and then she comes home and Charlie's like "Yo, Bella, what been up dawg?" and all that. So then I started thinking about Charlie… and how all this makes him feel. You know, his daughter being in love with a god-like male-model-like kid and succeeding in relationships more than he ever did. And so, this was born. XD (:

Ugly Duckling

There's only so much one man can take, you know? Sure, I'm a tough guy. I'm a great man. But even I have limits, and things that are difficult for me to encounter. However, there's really only one thing that makes me angry, and his name is Edward Cullen.

I guess angry isn't a correct word to use. Or maybe it is. First of all, he left Bella for a good long time, and left her in a condition that is simply unforgivable. Bella tells me that he did it for her, which doesn't make any honking sense. Though I know that there's a secret the two of them keep—along with Billy and everyone down at the reservation—that must be the key to all the answers.

So I accept it. Whatever. Regardless, he ruined Bella. It pained me to see my daughter like that: broken and… dead, really.

I guess the other, more _appropriate _word to use would be jealous.

And those of you who just thought of me as the creepy old father who has a love interest in his daughter, please punch yourself in the face for me, thanks. No, I'm not jealous of Edward because he has _Bella_—really, the only guy I'd pick over him would be Jacob—I'm jealous of what they have altogether. The relationship.

Towards the beginning of Bella's stay, when she'd fled to Phoenix, exclaiming that she couldn't stay here because it was no place to live, breaking up with Edward… that had really fractured me.

Renée left me because we'd clearly rushed into our relationship, and that Forks was no place to live, blah blah blah. She'd taken my daughter from me—just whisked off with her. Honestly, the government doesn't give us fathers enough credit. I mean, we don't carry the kid with us for nine months, but we still _love _them. It pisses me off that the mothers _always _get custody of the kids. Seriously.

But, besides all of that, she ran off with Bella and left me broken. Not quite as broken as Bella had been, but broken all the same. Obviously, I had been a youth then, and a pretty snazzy young man. I'd thought I was the bee's knees, and would bounce back easily.

Yeah. Didn't happen.

Now I'm quite a bit older, and single. What does that say about me? I'm the Police Chief, and in all the movies, the chicks swoon over the Chief. To them, I'm just Chief Swan, because they've known me my whole life and never saw me as anything more than a brother or simply the Chief.

Chief Swan. I feel more like the ugly duckling.

It's not even so much that I _think _I'm ugly; I think I'm a handsome guy, sure. For someone as old as me. I'm not overweight; I'm actually quite in shape. I have an okay sense of humor. I love my daughter. I love anyone unconditionally if they give me a reason to care for them.

So why do I _suck _when it comes to women?

Men like Carlisle Cullen are the ones who make me take a hit on self-esteem. Or even _Edward_, for Christ's sake, and he's only seventeen! The boy speaks as if he came from the nineteenth century and looks like he belongs on the pages of fucking Sexy Men 'R' Us, excuse my French.

Carlisle claims that he's thirty, but he can't be. There's no possible way. He doesn't change, _ever_. His hair is always exactly the same length and styling, and not to mention his _eyes—_is gold even a normal color? And the shade changes, too. I've seen Edward with black eyes, like coal.

That must be part of the secret. His never-changing appearance.

Every single woman who goes within half a mile of him is drawn to him for some reason. The younger Cullens, I know, are usually quieter in school, claiming not to date. Bella magically managed to infiltrate the system and snag not only Edward, but also the rest of the family.

I wonder whom she gets _that _trait from.

And I'm not even over Renée yet. That's the sad thing. I'm the kind of guy who needs a reason to move on, or someone who _helps _me move on. If I'd just meet a nice woman who would care for me better than Renée, be kinder than Renée, not run _off _like Renée…

But then there's that whole Bella-not-accepting-it thing.

Which I'm sure she'd do fine with. When Renée married Phil, she didn't mind. She just didn't want to pry. I also knew that Phil was a tad too young for her liking, which was understandable. Her mother was an odd woman, and Bella had always been the adult figure in the house. Funny how much I could learn just by being her father… just by being almost the same person as her.

So here I am. Charles Swan, the single Chief of Police in Forks, Washington, living under a rain cloud so large that it never leaves, with a daughter with a more successful relationship and a boyfriend who is so sickeningly attractive and sincere that it makes you want to throw up with envy.

They're never apart, except for when she sleeps, and she's given up all her friends for him.

And I have to watch it unfold every day of my life and ignore the vicious wanting and greed that flows through every vein of my body.

There's definitely got to be something wrong with this picture.

* * *

I'm thinking of turning this into a short story—Charlie finding love in the town of Forks and letting him have his thoughts shown about Bella and Edward. Will anyone read if I _do _continue? If so, tell me in a review, and I'll definitely go on!

I based Charlie's personality partially off of Billy Burke's personality, but mostly off of what I always thought Charlie was like. XD I'm going to have fun with this.


End file.
